In a surprising new interview with TorrentFreak, Square Enix senior manager of business and legal affairs Adam Sullivan said that digital rights management (DRM) is a necessary part of doing business in this day and age and that it won't be going away anytime soon.

"The primary benefit [of DRM] to us is the same as with any business: profit," Square Enix senior manager of business and legal affairs Adam Sullivan said. "We have a well-known reputation for being very protective of our IPs, which does deter many would-be pirates. However, effectiveness is notoriously difficult to measure--in short, we rely on the data available to us through our sales team and various vendors, along with consumer feedback."

Sullivan does acknowledge that any useful DRM solution must not get in the way of the player and the game it is meant to protect from illegal copying.

"The key to DRM is that it can't interfere with the customer's ability to play the game," he said. "It's not uncommon for people to get a new computer every few years, or to have multiple computers. Sometimes they don't have reliable Internet connections. There's no perfect solution yet."

Sullivan adds that "DRM will be essential for the foreseeable future," and that, "so long as we're concerned about things like data privacy, accounting sharing, and hacking, we'll need some form of DRM."

No, I saw it. It's just that the whole "DRM = $$$" argument falls flat on its face also when looking at the fact that it does something between "jack" and "squat" to deter pirates of the game, which cuts into said profits.

Aaah, I misinterpreted. I thought you were buying into the whole "People who bitch about DRM are pirating!" argument CliffyB once put forth, which is really faulty logic since pirates are the ones removing the DRM themselves.